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Emerging market growth offers a life line for insurance giant

17 May 2011 | Featured Story

In the 12 May 2011 issue of Finweek, Old Mutual was singled out for perpetrating South Africa’s seventh biggest corporate blunder. The magazine was ranking what they believe to be the worst economic, corporate and political policy mistakes over the past d

Speculators make mincemeat of long-term investor expectations

16 May 2011 | The Stage

Have you ever looked at a chart of long-term equity performance? I’m talking about a graph of the JSE All Share index going back 20-years, for example. One of the patterns you’ll notice is an incredible acceleration in market values over the past five yea

On banks and insurers… Pray never the twain shall meet!

16 May 2011 | Straight Talk

Thousands of South Africans enter into mortgage loan agreements with one or other of the country’s ‘big four’ banks each year. The banks ‘front’ the full purchase price (minus deposit) of the asset – usually a residential home – in return for a healthy wh

Why retirement annuities still make sense?

29 April 2011 | Straight Talk

South Africa’s retirement landscape is slowly evolving. One of the main trends in recent years has been the consolidation of the traditional employer-sponsored retirement fund space, which according to the Financial Services Board (FSB) has shrunk from 13